We are getting waaaaaaay off track here, but...PaulSacramento wrote:Hmmm...Satan sweeping 1/3 of the stars out of heaven takes place in Rev 12:3-4.
The birth of the male child occurs in Rev 12:5.
So the birth of Jesus takes place after the Fall of Satan and his followers.
The sequential relationship between Rev 12:1-2 and Rev 12:3-4 is ambiguous because they describe different signs.
However, the sequence of events of the Rev 12 narrative indicates that Rev 12:3-4 takes place sequentially before Rev 12:5.
So, that fall, the birth and then the war in Heaven?
SO the fall was before the war in which Satan and his angels were cast out?
Short answer... yes.
I personally believe the war in heaven described in Rev 12:7-9 occurs after the birth and ascension of Jesus described in Rev 12:5. And I believe that both Rev 12:5 and Rev 12:7-9 occur after the fall of Satan and 1/3 of the angels described in Rev 12:3-4.
Note the response to the defeat of Satan in Rev 12:10-13
According to verse 11 Satan was overcome because the blood of the Lamb (Jesus) and because of the word of the testimony of 'our brethren'. After being defeated and being thrown down to earth the dragon persecutes the woman (ie the faithful remnant of Israel). So I do not believe the war described in Rev 12:7-9 describes the original fall of Satan and his angels. I believe that it describes a Spiritual war which (according to Rev 12:10-11) also involved 'our brethren'.10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying,
“Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. 11 And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. 12 For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.”
13 And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child.